Those air embolisms aren’t good for you.
Plasticine arms loll as they pull the quilt.
Its razorback teeth ground down their sinew.

Plump a harrow complexion and eschew
the emancipated witch with bronze gilt;
within minutes she’d collapsed and turned blue.

Shouted “crash” but got insulin that slew
mottled underarm pricks that smeared his flue;
its razorback teeth ground down their sinew.

Saw him “healthy as a dog”. If Nurse knew…
“remember it hurting” then the bed tilt.
Within minutes she’d collapsed and turned blue;
its razorback teeth ground down their sinew.

Rhea Seren Phillips is a PhD student at Swansea University. She is studying how Welsh poetic forms and metre could be used to reconsider, engage and accurately represent the changing cultural identity of modern Wales. She has been published in Molly Bloom, Cheval 10, Cultured Vultures, Writing Times and The Conversation. She runs Grandiloquent Wretches, a Patreon page that combines poetry, art and audio. Read other articles by Rhea Seren.

This article was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2018 at 8:01am and is filed under Poetry.